What to do when COVID comes home

Well, it happened.

After two and a half years of loathing and living in fear of getting COVID-19, and after taking precautions to avoid catching the virus, the dreaded disease finally showed up on our doorstep a few weeks ago as both my wife, Nancy, and I tested positive.

Honestly, we were surprised at the results because despite the more relaxed public COVID mandates in Nova Scotia, my family continues to take precautions such as wearing masks whenever we go inside a public building.

We have also taken advantage of the vaccines and boosters as they become available and we will continue to do so. We were very diligent in our efforts to avoid infection but, somehow, it still found us. It almost seems like it was inevitable.

I know that despite the abundance of scientific evidence available there are many people who choose to believe that COVID-19 is a huge world-wide conspiracy and they also refuse to believe masks and vaccines are safe. You are free to believe whatever you wish, just as my family and I are free to do likewise. The bottom line is that we should all respect each other’s opinions and decisions.

However, at age 60, both Nancy and I choose to believe it’s safer to protect ourselves as best we can, and so, we will continue to take whatever precautions we can. We choose to trust science and medicine.

Now, there are those who argue that if these precautions are so safe and effective, how did we get COVID? And that’s a very good question we can’t explain nor easily answer except to point out Public Health officials are now warning this new variant is much more transmissible and aggressive than previous forms of the virus. It almost seems inevitable that we are all likely going to get COVID.

The fast-spreading BA.5 subvariant of Omicron and its close relative BA.4 now make up about 95 per cent of COVID cases in Canada and the U.S. While provinces have lifted mask mandates and ended measures meant to contain the spread of the virus, Canada’s Public Health officials have warned of an increase in hospitalizations as the highly transmissible Omicron subvariant circulates around the globe.

Instead of arguing the precautions don’t work, I would counter had we not received the vaccines, my wife and I may have been dealing with a more serious case of the disease. We can argue this until the proverbial cows come home, but as it was, Nancy and I consider ourselves very lucky to have had a somewhat mild case of the disease which seemed much like a very bad head and chest cold with extreme fatigue.

In fact, if I had to identify one symptom of the illness that affected me the hardest, I would say it would have been the extreme lethargic feeling I suffered with for more than week, with a serious lack of energy and ability to focus. The best way to describe the feeling is to say it felt like I was suffering from serious sleep deprivation and all I wanted to do was to rest.

For Nancy, while she was also very tired, she suffered more with the cough and chest congestion than I did, but she agrees it was as if she had a really bad cold. We both agree, it’s something we do not want to experience again.

We know every case is different and none of this is meant to diminish the seriousness of this potentially deadly disease. In truth, we consider ourselves lucky to have suffered what we considered minor symptoms in comparison to what some people say they have experienced.

Despite the gains that have been made in medical research and treatment, the Corona virus still poses a very serious threat to humans. While great strides have been made in dealing with the disease that literally crippled the world for more than two years, it’s clear that COVID19 is here to stay and we will have to learn to live with it.

What that means for us moving forward is still not clear and while some continue to debate and dismiss the seriousness of the virus, it’s abundantly clear that it can find you no matter what precautions you take.

Let’s not be mistaken, this virus is all around us and is still infecting a significant number of people. For instance, during a recent sevenday period from July 19 to

July 25, hospitals in Nova Scotia reported a significant jump in the number of patients who tested positive for

COVID-19.

According to Nova Scotia Health, during that period there were a total of 260 patients in hospitals across the province who were positive for COVID-19. That number included 45 patients admitted for treatment of COVID-19 symptoms (nine in ICU),

143 patients admitted for treatment of another health issue but tested positive for COVID-19 and 72 patients who contracted COVID-19 after admission to hospital.

These numbers represented an increase of 64 patients from the previous week, one of the largest week-overweek increases reported in Nova Scotia hospitals since the start of the pandemic.

Nova Scotia also reported five new COVID-19 deaths and a daily average of 272 labconfirmed cases. Since March 2020, there have been 468 COVID-19 deaths in Nova Scotia. About three-quarters of those deaths happened during the Omicron wave, which began December 8, 2021.

Nova Scotia is considered one of the hottest spots in Canada for COVID and a number of deaths are reported every week from the disease that has plagued the world for more than two years so we would never make light of the situation nor dismiss anyone’s suffering. COVID is a very serious disease and people should still be their toes when it comes to the virus. They should be aware that the chance of catching COVID is very real and that’s the view from here.